Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1887-01-07

whether the conie ~ col
stlier5 sas any 11ors sup erstiti pue than
the federal il nett her "a NIT nor SSeny,
but think the same SUD rSt itions III
regard 10 battles prob bly prevailedl
TO equal xtent on both sides. We
may laugh at them no but al We
once accepted and pinned our faith ID
them.
sz The first instance to como under
my q bseryatio was at' Cain & Mills
II was then serving with an Alabama
regiment, and on & he morning Of the
day on which We were making our cot
fee at the early camp FRI. heard q
sort OF groan from a cOmrade, and as.
! turned to look at him I noticed that
he s.; was staring into his coffee pot with
something g like terror while his face
was deathly pale. ss g
" What IS it? asked.
- shall be killed to-day, he groaned
out. 81 II {.5 RI. .s #5s 1.
8 F'udge! We don't know that even
q single musket will be fired. = @4. .&. g3..
81 dreamed last night, q he whisper
ed, that ! looked down upon sheet
OF water whose surface vas covered
with bubbles, and amidst them I.saW
my own dead face. I shall be shot be-
lore night. z5 =4 b =.sEa3}
! ridlculed the idea and brought up
others to assist me, but the only res
Ply TO our ralllery was sad shake Of
the head. He was q believer in
dreams, and he certainly felt that his
last cay had come. In place OF eat
ing his breakfast, he scribbled off a
letter to his mother and entrusted it
to a comrade. In a little time we got
the orders to march, and before noon
my regiment was thrown forward to
uncover a portion Of the federal line.
The first missile sent at us was q
solid shot from field piece, and it
struck the young soldier in the chest
and cut him fairly in two without in
]uring another man. Not another
man was even wounded for the next
ten minutes. !; 49, =
The night before Burnside crossed
at fredericksburg second lieutenant
in g. Virginia regiment received, with
hundreds of others, some mail from
the regimental bag. Icarried the pack
Of twenty or thirty letters over to the
officers quarters and handed it to
this lieutenant. The top letter was
for him, and on one end of the envel-
ope was red stain. 1t looked like
blood, but was probably ink. He no
sooner saw it than he became greatly
affected, and said:
~ shall be the first officer out of
the regiment killed tomorrow"
Iheard: a. dozen officers ridiculing
him, but he became silent and serious,
and finally walked away by himself.
We were down ON the right, where
the first federal attack was made.
Our regiment was using g. long and
deep land furrow as q rifle pit, and
the advancing line of blue had lust
come within range, when g. bullet
struck the lieutenant in the head and
killed him instantly. 1T came from
the front and was probably from some
sharpshooter, but it was afterward
agreed that the officer who was killed
was perhaps the least exposed of anv,
There was superstition in nv reyi-
ment that any one who went into bat
tie with foot of a rabbit tied around
his neck was safe. This was all right,
and rabbits feet we're at q high premi-
UNI for two or three weeks. My bri-
gade was then pushed ahead on a re-
connoissance, bumped up against the
Yanks, and we not only got severely
thrashed, but we lost a. good many
men. Out OF the seventy men in my
company presume that thirty had
the talisman. 1t so happened that the
three killed belonged to this ''lucky''
set, and next day rabbits feet took q
decided fall in price.
was for time brigadier's order
ly. His superstition was that he
would be safe from bullets as long as
he rode a chestnut horse. In the first
battle into which I followed him his
chestnut was shot, and, of course, ]
"hustled" to bring him up another.
Mine was coal black, and the only
one which ! could get for him was a
roam. He didn't seem to notice the
difference until the action was over,
and then got a terrible rating. In
the second battle he had q chestnut,
and even before our line came under
fire q bullet crippled the horse and
another hit nv sunerstitious gen.
eral in the thigh and left him to limp
through life on a short leg. !
personally knew other officers who felt
safe on roans, bays, blacks and even
whites, but they sooner or later dis
covered that they had pinned their
faith to rule which had Exceptions.
remember that just before Grant at
tackled Lee in the Wilderness, and
while l was at brigade headquarters,
hen, OF which there was alarge flock
ton. A sergeant OF cavalry at once
aaked what ,,sa ' he no',,d ~ n , = tn ha
replied:
II will drop it into the ear OF my
eolOnel's horse just before the next
T. I. <.